Tag Archives: #MyJihad

You may have noticed the #MyJihad ad campaign that the jihadist front group CAIR has been pushing down our throats recently. For years, we’ve been hearing the Big Lie that “Islam means peace.” Now comes the Big Lie that jihad means whatever you personally want it to mean. Here are some examples from the enemy’s latest plot to keep us in the dark about what they’re up to:

San Francisco officials held a press conference today to condemn our jihad truth ads as “Islamophobic” and “racist” — what race is jihad terror again? I keep forgetting. And why is it “Islamophobic” to report on what Islamic jihadists and supremacists have actually said about jihad, so as to alert Americans to the nature of the jihad threat? Unexplained, unexamined. The San Francisco officials and the mainstream media are not engaging in any real analysis, but just in propagandistic sloganeering and grandstanding, the end result of which is to deny and minimize the reality of the jihad threat.

Do you think that conclusion is overstated? Consider this: Pete DaTech guy contacted Stephanie Ong Stillman, the Director of Communications the Office of District Attorney George Gascón, and asked her if San Francisco officials planned to condemn the ads alone, or also the jihadis’ statements on the ads. It would have been easy to throw in a line about deploring the “twisted version of Islam” enunciated by the jihadis depicted in the ads, but no such luck: Stephanie Ong Stillmen repeatedly told Pete that they were only condemning the ads, not the jihadis. Read all about it here, and Pamela Geller has more here.

Politely and courteously register your indignation at the hypocrisy and moral myopia of San Francisco officials:

NEW YORK, March 11, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A prominent national human rights organization, the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), has denounced San Francisco city leaders’ condemnation of their ads telling the truth about the jihad threat that Americans face.

The AFDI ads feature actual quotes from Osama bin Laden, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a witness to the jihad of Fort Hood mass murderer Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, Hamas TV and Times Square jihad car bomber Faisal Shahzad. They depict Osama bin Laden’s actual explanation of why he took down the Twin Towers: “The first thing we are calling you to is Islam.” They note that Hasan was shouting “Allahu akbar” as he murdered 13 Americans at Fort Hood. They recount a Hamas TV music video that included the lyric, “Killing Jews is worship that draws us close to Allah,” and report Shahzad’s words on how jihad involving “weaponry” is “an obligation and duty in Islam on every Muslim.”

“Americans need to understand the threat they’re facing,” said AFDI Executive Director Pamela Geller. “That is the point of our ads. The slaughter of Christians in Nigeria, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Malaysia, Algeria et al — that doesn’t warrant a statement, let alone a press conference from San Francisco authorities, but my ads do. Think about that. Hundreds of thousands dead, but it would be blasphemy to talk about. The slaughter in the cause of jihad is OK, but my talking about it is the problem.”

Geller continued: “It is significant that they did not condemn the cynical and deceptive Hamas-linked CAIR ads that ran on buses earlier, and to which my ads are replying. Their inconsistency and politically motivated selective outrage are manifest.”

“Hamas-CAIR,” she said, “an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest Hamas funding trial in our nation’s history, has created out of whole cloth a propaganda campaign that dissembles, deceives, and deliberately lies about the definition of jihad. Our ads reply to that campaign with the truth about the jihad threat in the words of the jihadis themselves.”

The internet has literally been littered with news reports about a new propaganda campaign being waged by the head of the Council on American Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) Chicago director.

The man’s name is Ahmed Rehab and his methodology has been to run advertising on buses to change the public perception of the word “Jihad.”

Rehab has chosen two of the most liberal cities in America in which to conduct his campaign so far: Chicago and San Francisco.

The name of the campaign is “MyJihad” and it aims to convince Americans that Jihad only means “to struggle” or, more specifically, an internal, personal struggle. Rehab claims that this is the “true” meaning of Jihad.

Unfortunately for Rehab, he is only partially correct and any campaign that claims that the term Jihad only means an internal, personal struggle amounts to disinformation. The dualistic nature of Islam, in this case as it applies to the meaning of “Jihad,” is well documented both in historical Islamic doctrine and in contemporary use of the term.

And Jihad definitely does not only mean an internal, personal struggle. In fact, the most widespread meaning of the term that is of particular interest to Westerners who are threatened by Jihad does in fact entail violence.

A false and misleading statement has been attributed to the San Francisco chapter head of CAIR, Zahra Billoo:

“A common misconception of the word jihad is that it means armed struggle or holy war, and that is something that has been perpetrated by many who’ve made careers out of pushing anti-Muslim sentiment.”

Such a meaning for Jihad has nothing to do with anyone with an “anti-Muslim sentiment.” It has everything to do with Islam itself.

Let us examine definitions of Jihad from two authoritative sources.

Jihad According to the Quran

****************************************

*******************************

The first is the Quran itself. In this case, specifically The Noble Qu’ran, translated into English by two scholars: Dr. Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din Al-Hilali, PhD, professor of Islamic Faith and Teachings at the Islamic University, Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah, Saudi Arabia and Dr. Muhammad Mushin Khan of the same institution. The Noble Qu’ran was published by Darussalam Publishers and Distributors, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It has been catalogued by King Fahad National Library. On page 818, in a glossary accompanying the text of the Quran, The Noble Qu’ran provides the following definition of Jihad:

“Jihad: Holy fighting in the Cause of Allah or any other kind of effort to make Allah’s Word superior. Jihad is regarded as one of the fundamentals of Islam.”

Can the Quran itself be promoting “anti-Muslim sentiment” as CAIR’s Zahra Billoo asserts?

Jihad According to Shariah

Our second source is Reliance of the Traveler: A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law.

Reliance of the Traveler is one of the world’s most widely read manuals of Shariah law. It has been endorsed by a variety of Islamic authorities, including Al Azhar University in Cairo, IIIT (International Institute of Islamic Thought) in Herndon, Virginia, the Fiqh Council of North America, the Islamic Fiqh Academy in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the Mufti of the Jordanian Armed Forces andthe Imam of the Mosque of Darwish Pasha in Damascus, Syria.

These can hardly be termed as those pushing “anti-Muslim sentiment” as Billoo claims.

On page 599 of Reliance of the Traveler, readers can find the following passage:

o9.0 JIHAD

(O: Jihad means to war against non-Muslims, and is etymologically derived from the word mujahada, signifying warfare to establish the religion…

The scriptural basis for jihad, prior to scholarly consensus is such Koranic verses as:

(1) “Fighting is prescribed for you” (Koran 2:216);

(2) “Slay them wherever you find them” (Koran 4:89);

(3) “Fight the idolators utterly” (Koran 9:36);

and such hadiths as the one related by Bukhari and Muslim that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said:

“I have been commanded to fight people until they testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and perform the prayer, and pay zakat. If they say it, they have saved their blood and possessions from me, except for the rights of Islam over them. And their final reckoning is with Allah”;

and the hadith reported by Muslim,

“To go forth in the morning or evening to fight in the path of Allah is better than the whole world and everything in it.”

Jihad According to Terrorists

If Jihad truly means to “struggle” and not warfare to establish the religion, how does CAIR explain the names of all these terrorist organizations?

Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (Pakistan, Bangladesh, India)

Islamic Front for Armed Jihad (Algeria)

Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine (Lebanon)

Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine (Israel)

Islamic Jihad Organization (Lebanon)

Islamic Jihad Union (Uzbekistan)

Jama’at al-Jihad al-Islami (Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Russia)

Laskar Jihad (Indonesia)

United Jihad Council (India)

Contemporary Video Evidence of Widespread Use of the Term “Jihad”

Finally, there is a mountain of video evidence which illustrates vividly the widespread contemporary use of the term Jihad:

First, we have a 10 minute video from a Palestinian Authority TV children’s show using the term Jihad:

Next we have a 1-minute video of female terrorists from the group Islamic Jihad:

Here is a 2-minute news report on Taliban fighters vowing to continue to wage jihad after the death of Osama Bin Laden:

Then there’s this 6-minute tribute to the “Lion of Jihad,” Osama Bin Laden:

A 24-second sound byte from British-based Imam Amjen Choudary on Jihad in Islam:

More from Choudary; in this case a 2-minute warning that Jihad is on its way:

A 2-minute segment from Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, leader of Al Qaeda, on Jihad:

A 40-second call by Zawahiri to Pakistanis to rise up in Jihad:

A 3-minute news report on Somali Al Qaeda affiliate Al Shabaab using Social Media to call Muslims to Jihad:

A 4-minute posthumous call to Jihad by American-born Anwar al Awlaki. Keep in mind that, before he became head of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Awlaki had been an Imam at mosques in San Diego, Denver and northern Virginia and was regarded as a great “moderate” who was a favorite show pony for “outreach” programs. He was invited to the Pentagon. He delivered sermons to the Congressional Muslim Staffers Association on Capitol Hill. Prominent CAIR officers, employees and members attended these sermons. At least one former CAIR employee who attended Awlaki’s sermons on Capitol Hill in Washington DC is now in jail on terrorism charges:

A call to Jihad by Yasir Arafat–three years after signing the Oslo Accords…

A 5-minute call to Jihad by the Chairman of the Association of Muslim Scholars in Syria:

A 4-minute call to Jihad from the Sudanese Minister of International Cooperation:

The head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) vows to complain to U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials after they blocked a radical Saudi cleric from entering the country this week to attend a national Islamist conference in Chicago.

Sheikh Ayed al-Qarni was scheduled to speak twice during the Muslim American-Society (MAS)/Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) national convention Dec. 22-25. But a statement released during the convention expressed “the unpleasant and saddening news” that al-Qarni had been removed from his flight from Saudi Arabia despite having a visa from the U.S. embassy, and that he appears to be on the U.S. “no-fly list.” Al-Qarni is described as “one of our great speakers” and as someone known “for his logical discourse and balanced views, he promotes understanding and collaboration between all people, regardless of their faith, background, or language.”

Al-Qarni has advocated jihad in the past and his preaching on the subject has been described as influential among al-Qaida followers.

CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad told an Arabic news outlet that he would protest al-Qarni’s exclusion with DHS and State Department officials. “We defend all Muslims who are subject to arbitrary measure, and by this logic, we will act but not formally plead, unless we obtain authorization from him.”

It’s an ironic protest to make in light of a public relations campaign orchestrated by CAIR’s Chicago chapter. “MyJihad” aims to show non-Muslims that the term jihad is more about peaceful, personal attempts at overcoming challenges than about calls for violence and terror.

Through Awad, also a listed speaker at the convention, CAIR is fighting to bring a Saudi cleric into the United States who has argued the exact opposite message. During a 2005 sermon flagged by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), al-Qarni called the jihad against American forces in Fallujah “a source of pride … downing their planes, destroying equipment, slaughtering them, taking them hostage, and proclaiming ‘Allah Akhbar’ from the mosques, and the worshippers and the preacher cursing them in their prayers, and then come others begging for forgiveness, and requesting a dialogue and a ceasefire and negotiations. Who can say even one word against this true Jihad against these colonialist occupiers?” [Emphasis added]

He belittled Muslims who failed to take action, including “harming the Jews.” He invoked Israel’s targeted killings of Hamas leaders Ahmed Yassin and Abdel-Aziz Rantisi, saying he prayed that Allah “will destroy the Jews and their helpers from among the Christians and the Communists, and that He will turn them into the Muslims’ spoils. I praise the Jihad, the sacrifice, and the resistance against the occupiers in Iraq. We curse them all of them every night and pray that Allah will annihilate them, tear them apart, and grant us victory over them…”

“Throats must be slit and skulls must be shattered,” al-Qarni said. “This is the path to victory, to shahada, and to sacrifice.”